Did you feel that had any of the rough surface skating you mentioned before? I didn't notice anything too bad there. Nice!
Nice run. Are all auto-x in the US just a mini road course? PCA in Germany would also include single cone U-turns, lane changes, and slaloms in their auto-x runs.
Autocross courses in the US can have a lot of regional or club-to-club variation. When you have a large lot such as this one, everyone wants a chance to have a fast, flowing course! Of course, everyone hates pivot cones, lane changes have been quite uncommon in my US auto-x experience (the "Chicago box", ugh!), but slaloms are common. I'm not excited by any of those elements, though, I want a chance to wind out third gear!
That looks like a San Diego autocross? They are lucky enough to have a very big lot to use, so they get to make big sweeping courses where you can hit 3rd gear. Here in Atlanta, we have a couple venues that allow different courses. The SCCA typically sets up more technical courses with a variety of obstacles, while the PCA likes them faster and more open. This is the annual SCCA novice school, so no numbers or classes, and no penalties for cones. They only use half the lot for the course, while the other half is set up for training, so it's a short course with pretty decent technical stuff, but geared to help novices. I took my daughter to it and she's totally hooked, loved the whole day. Next time I'll take a GoPro and get some better video. Miranda's best run, 42 seconds with a couple obliterated cones. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAY-5tcIh4M My best run, a 36 and one cone paid the ultimate price. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3pQEglivY4
BTW on that course the prepped Hondas and Miatas were running 31-32 seconds and a shifter kart was pretty consistent 29s. This was the first time I've run the 308 and I just started to get a feel for how balanced it is. Definitely had a couple more seconds in it, but I was pretty happy for its first outing on street tires.
Here's the results too ... you can see why a couple more seconds would be nice Standings for Event: 2014-07-12 @Qualcomm - West Lot I had changed back to the QA1's for this event and had the rears set on 10, the fronts on 7. I still had some push and tried the fronts on 6, but that made the sweepers a bit twitchy on the side of oversteer so went back to 7 for the timed runs. I didn't call Lex yet ... after absorbing the great feedback in my other thread I decided to contact the shock manufacturer to see if they wanted to give me advice on re-valve ... they said they would but I've not heard back yet. Overall I think I was maybe 1 second faster with this setup and my tires were very worn. Speaking of, I had a brother over helping me prep my Porsche for the next event and he saw the 308 parked in the dirt ... I have a dirt driveway leading to my shop so it's kinda hard to avoid. He thought if I managed my tires better I should be good for another second ... manage as in never drive my competition tires on my dirt driveway ... anyone think there's any truth to that? I'm also curious if there's really 2 seconds difference if I go to race tires ... some guys have been telling me the Hankook RS3's I'm running are about as sticky as Hoosiers ... Even though the RS3's have a 200 treadwear (they were 140) I've been told by more than one guy that they are pretty close to a race compound... I'm stuck on the $108/pc price for the Hankook's vs the price of race tires, although the Hankook race tires aren't too pricey. The way the car felt I find it hard to believe I could find another two seconds with an optimized shock setup ... but we shall see. cheers gents
There's no way the rs3's are close to the Hoosiers, unfortunately. I always look at the tires the fast guys at my autox run and in the street tire class, the RS3's or Direzza Z2's are usually quickest. They do not really come close to the Hoosiers, though. Here's me at my last Autox, I finished 6th out of 63 cars. All cars in front of me were on full slicks and trailered to the event, I drove there and was running Hoosier R6's (not A6's, which are quicker, especially for autox). Fastest street tire car (An '07 C6) was .6 or so behind me and was the only street tire car in the top 10. There is a guy in a c5 z06 that runs 335 wide A6's and usually sets one of the fastest times of the day, but he didn't show or I would have finished 7th. [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1X-mUl_Hqb8]vmsc autox 5 2014 - YouTube[/ame]
Is that easy to do? I remember on the old American cars there was a little allen screw that locked into a piece that was glued to the windshield ... never had the mirror off this car although I need to fix it ... it kinda flops around .. I think I head butted it one day working on something. cheers
Right on thanks for the feedback. I got some R6's I think I'll run on the Ferrari next time just for the heck of it... that's in a couple of months ... gonna run the P car next weekend. I checked out your AX lap ... looked like fun but I don't think I would've seen 3rd gear with the 308 ... What were you driving? cheers
If there was a road course as convenient as that parking lot I'd be all over it ... but alas ... there isn't, and I don't mind the technical stuff, but I enjoy the 3rd gear sweepers waaaaaay more ... I like sweeping corners where you need balls ... I find the slower technical autox's don't require them .
It's a 355. I didn't hit 3rd, most of our autox courses are set up to use 2nd gear, though I've hit the rev limiter once or twice.
I posted some pics in another floppy rearview thread showing what goes wrong. It's easy to take the mirror apart and sort it out. It made me crazy! It's still not amazingly stable, but well worth it!
For those interested, here is the official JCNA Slalom Course Layout which is used throughout North America. We have also used this layout at various FCA events. For those interested in a technical course, this will challenge you. Average run time is 44 seconds. Purpose built cars get below 39 sec. Image Unavailable, Please Login
Yeah, it's easy...the base stays glued to the windshield and the mirror part just "pops" into it...it's like a ball socket. A gentle tug on it will remove it or you can use a thin flat head to pry them apart. Reinstalling is just popping it back in. It helps a lot with your visability during an auto-x.
Funny thing happened when I did a search on youtube for "Ferrari 308 autocross"... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AWYn9SYmwo It's me last year at Camarillo airport. Fun, but very tight technical course. Always a good time though. Henry
